Ramnavami yatras show ‘love jihad’ consequences with cut-up body parts

Chatra: A play during Ramnavami celebrations in Jharkhand’s Chatra district depicted a fictional scenario in which actors staged the consequences of “love jihad.”

The play shows actors dressed as Muslim men in white kurtas, beards, and skullcaps, attacking a woman (also an actor) with swords. She falls to the ground injured, crying for help, and is portrayed as dead.

At this, one actor says, “Arey, yeh tho mar gayi malvi sahab, ab iska kya karein (She is dead. What should we do?)”

“Dafna do isko (Bury her off),” replies the ‘maluvi.’

The audience, a majority of Hindus, watches the “Muslim men” chop off the “Hindu woman’s body,” stuff it into a gunny bag.

The scene pans to another actor, dressed in a red saree with a sword, who says, “Babloo Sheikh, mein aa gayi (I have come Babloo Sheikh).”

“Arey, tumhara intezaar tha (I was waiting for you),” says the actor portraying Babloo Sheikh, in his blood-soaked kurta.

The entire sequence suggests the consequences of “love jihad.”

Storytelling plays a major role in Hindu festivals, where excerpts from religious texts are often acted out. However, this Ramnavami in the Giddhour area, a group showcased “love jihad” and how Muslim men handle Hindu women after luring them under the context of marriage and love, but instead convert, and according to the play, also kill them.

“Love jihad” is an Islamophobic conspiracy theory promoted by right-wing Hindutva groups to misrepresent consensual interfaith marriages.

Giddhour Station House Officer told Siasat.com, no such incident has been reported.

‘Muslims trap Hindu women’

In Maharashtra’s Pune district, an elaborate tableau showed the visual narrative where a Muslim man supported by his family lures a Hindu woman.

The first section of the tableau showed a presumably Muslim family having a conversation, wherein the brother says, “Bhai tune pataliye (Brother, you have won her over).”

Another woman says, “You are near the target,” while the man who “traps” these women says, “Machli jaal me phass gayi (The fish has been caught in the trap) referencing the Hindu woman “target.”

The next part shows a marriage scene where the groom’s dialogue reads, “This is not love. It is war.” A woman standing beside a couple in a burqa has the dialogue, “Khushiya hi khushiya hogi (Now there will be only happiness)” and “Searching next..”

Finally depicting the ending of the master plan, the Muslim man’s cardboard cut-out figure holds a knife with blood on his clothes as the dialogue above him reads, “Yahi anjaam hoga

(This will be your result).” He is seen standing in front of a refrigerator filled with mutilated, bloodied body parts and a suitcase filled with other body parts.

The graphic and gory depiction was seen passing through the streets of Dhayari village, as onlookers keenly saw it go by, reinforcing Islamophobic rhetoric.

The presentation included images from The Kerala Story, suggesting that women regard Muslim men with caution. The visuals align with the controversial propaganda film that critics argue promotes the conspiracy theory and misleads audiences.

Similarly, in Bihar’s Vaishali, on Ramnavami, a tableau promoted the theory, with a poster advising women not to become a victim of “love jihad.”

“Behen, tu Durga ban, Kaali ban, par love jihad ki shikar mat ban (Sister, become a Durga, or a Kaali, but do not become a prey of love jihad),” the poster read.

The showcase had cut-up legs, hands and other body parts hanging from above, inside an abandoned drum, a refrigerator, as even children looked on.